In HBV transgenic mice, heterozygous deletion of BECLIN 1 increases frequency of spontaneous malignancies and accelerated the onset of HCC (Qu et al., 2003); in line with this, the expression levels of BECLIN 1 mRNA is lower in human HCC tissue than in chronic hepatitis tissue (Kotsafti et al., 2012). Here, BECN1 is linked to chronic hepatitis.